A substance made efficiently by joining small units together is known as 'Click' chemistry. This approach has been used to synthesize simple C60 hexakis-adduct derivatives, bearing twelve functional groups. Adapting this new synthetic approach should provide easy access to a large number of functionalized fullerenes. 

Jean-François Nierengarten at the Laboratoire de Chimie des Matériaux Moléculaires in France, Béatrice Delavaux-Nicot at the Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination du CNRS in France, Rossimiriam Pereira de Freitas at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil, and colleagues, have found that this 'click' approach enabled a simple hexakis-adduct carrying 12 azide groups, to be developed as a synthesis platform. This can then be used to introduce almost any functional group under the copper mediated Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition conditions. 

The motivation behind this work was to produce fullerene derivatives as a 'multifunctional core for new drug delivery systems or as a photoactive core unit in light harvesting molecular devices', said Nierengarten. 

It is hoped that this new methodology could lead to a large variety of fullerene hexakis-adducts without limitations caused by the synthetic route. 'In this way, in depth investigations of their properties will be possible and one can really start to envisage the use of such materials for specific applications', said Nierengarten. 

Michael Brown